"Hey." Sam says, looking me up and down.

Her eyes are enchanting, and I stare at her for a couple seconds before I remember Helen. 

"Right, well, this is our room." I say quickly while avoiding Sam's gaze.

I push past her and lead Helen into the room, where there are two beds, four nightstands, a small sofa and a bathroom. Just how I imagined.

I put my stuff down on the farthest of the beds, and Helen follows me.

"Want to share?" I ask her.

She shakes her head solemnly. "I'm sorry, I already promised Jennifer we would share." 

"Oh," I say. "That's fine, I get it."

 We go to dinner, and the food is surprisingly bland. I pile beans and two grilled chicken sandwiches onto my plate, and find Carson and Gunnar.

"You're really gonna eat all that?" Carson asks when I sit down across from them.

"Yes?" I say, 

He smirks. "You really wanna be running to the bathroom in the middle of the night?" He says. "I'm just saying, y'know, considering the circumstances."

"What circumstances?"

"Whatever you and Sam have got going on-- and your sleeping situation."

"What does that have to do with anything?"

Carson sighs and pinches the bridge of his nose. "Here comes the woman in question." He says, and I stab the piece of chicken on my plate.

Speak of the devil. The woman in question she exits the line of people waiting for their food and starts coming towards us.

She stops at our table as if to say something, but avoids eye contact. 

"Um." She says. It's quite obvious that whatever it is is probably directed at me, even if she is not exactly looking. "Nevermind." She says, and walks away.

***

"Carson."

"No, Vic!" Carson says pushing me towards room 209. My room. Our room, that I share with three girls including Sam. "Gosh, you're like a child!"

"I do age wonderfully."

"You can't share a room with us!"

"But please. I'll be so quiet you'll forget I'm there."

He pushes me until I'm right in front of my room door, and gives me a light shove. "Vic, just talk to her. It won't be that bad, stop stressing."

Then he rapidly knocks on the door and races down the hallway, dashing around a corner.

"Carson, you little rat." I say through gritted teeth.

I hear footsteps from behind the door, and I sigh with relief when it turns out to be Helen. 

"Hey, we were wondering where you were. Sam's still in the shower but she'll probably be out soon . . . you can go last then."

"Oh okay, sure."

I sit on the far left of the bed, pull out She Drives Me Crazy and start reading. I'm at the part where Scottie and Irene decide to start fake-dating, even though they hate each other, and I cringe slightly when I realize how similar the beginning of their relationship is to mine and Deavon's. Speaking of that kid, I haven't seen him in a while.

The door to the bathroom opens, and a flushed, soaked-dark-haired, dripping Sam steps out. She glances at me, then at my book, and then looks away.

I'm greatly annoyed at the tightness I begin to feel in my chest, and the way my heartbeat races beyond recognition.

But I quickly grab the things I need to take a shower, and enter the already humid room.

I try to take as long of a shower as possible, to increase the chances of Sam being asleep when I get out, so I won't have to talk to her. 

When finally I do get out of the shower, everyone's already in their beds, possibly asleep. I take my small SKN bag and reenter the bathroom to do a bit of skincare before bed. Once I'm finished, I slide into the bed, staying on the far left side. The bed is suprisingly big enough for both of us to stay at least three feet apart.

Sam POV

How long does it take to take a freaking shower? I think as I lay in bed, wide awake. She's wasting so much water.

I hear her come out of the bathroom, but I don't dare look up. Instead I close my eyes and pretend to be sleeping.

She goes back into the bathroom, probably for some stupid reason I can't fathom. When she comes out a few minutes later I feel her get into bed, and I hate to say that even though we're facing opposite directions, I feel instantly warmer.

 I step into the social worker's offfice. 

"You needed me?" I ask the lady behind the desk.

"As a matter of fact, yes. Who are you staying with at the moment?"

I shift my feet. "My Grandma. Why?"

She shuffles a stack of papers. "We need to talk about your living situation."

 "What? There's nothing wrong with it!"

She puts the now neat pile down on her desk. 

 "I know you love your Grandma, but she can't provide for you forever. And your mother didn't exactly leave you anything to live off of."

 "What are you talking about!"

 "I think you know exactly what I'm talking about." She folds her hands and looks at me. "I hear you've been causing some trouble at school?"

I ball my fists up at my sides. So privacy just isn't a thing here.

"What." I say.

"I've registered you for a summer camp for this year. If you go, your chances of not getting expelled will greatly improve."

She thinks I'm scared of a little expulsion. Like I want to keep going to this crappy school. But then I remember what Grandma said about causing too much trouble for her.

"But--!"

"You're dismissed."

I wake up with a start, my eyes jolting open. 

Victoria's POV

"So how was last night?" I ask Carson that morning at breakfast. We're sitting at one of those long cafeteria tables with Gunnar, Adysen and Deavon. There's another table connected to ours, and right next to me sits Mckenna, the rest of her table being Chlo, Sam, and what I assume is Chlo's new boyfriend.

"Great. Guess who I got to room with." Carson says, and I catch Gunnar give him a quick look that could either be suprise and embarrasment. Deavon looks uncomfortable.

Chlo keeps glancing at me every few seconds, and I can tell she really wants to say something, and Sam just sits there with her arms crossed, barely touching her food.

"Gunnar?" I say.

"Gee, how'd you guess?" Deavon says, sarcasm apparent in his voice.

"Yes." Carson says triumphantly, ignoring Deavon. "Now for the question we've all been waiting for . . . "

I roll my eyes.

"How did your night go?" He says.

"My night went fine."

"Fine? That's it?"

"It went okay. Better than expected."

Deavon puts his hand on my leg, and I almost jump at the sensation. It feels so weird when he does that, and I'm about to move my leg away before I remember we're supposed to be dating. It's normal. I tell myself. You're supposed to be cool with it. You're supposed to like it.

"You don't have to pretend. You guys are best friends, you'll bounce back before you know it."

What?

"Yep, thanks Deavon."

Carson happily eats his cereal and Gunnar picks at his toast with a frown on his face, looking extremely nervous.

Then the girl Sam was with yesterday at the lake shows up in front of Sam's table and whispers something into Sam's ear. When she pulls away, Sam looks at her and shakes her head, and the girl walks back to her table looking defeated.

What did she say to her?

Then Sam gets up and leaves.

I hadn't noticed Mckenna scooching towards me until she's right next to my ear.

"What did you do?!" She whispers harshly into my ear.

"Huh?"

"You know what I'm talking about." Mckenna says. "What stupid thing did you do her this time?"

Oh, she's talking about Sam.

I fold my arms. "I didn't do anything."

"Why is she all depressed?"

"How am I supposed to know?" I say. I glare down at my food, my appetite disappearing. "Maybe she stubbed her toe or something."

Mckenna stares at me. "You don't care."

"Why should I?"

She goes silent. 

"Because today is her birthday."

I actually physically turn my head to look at her for the first time.

"Then tell her I said happy birthday, and I'm sorry about her toe."

Mckenna leaves in a huff.

That night, after a dinner of grilled-chicken sandwiches and french fries, Carson walks with me to my room. 

"That's weird." I say when we reach my room. "I don't think I saw her at all today after breakfast."

Carson looks at me. "Who-- Oh, of course. We're still talking about her?"

"No, Carson. But I just think it's weird that she was just allowed to leave like that, when the rest of us were forced to go on that tour." I say.

"Yeah, that is kind of weird." He says.

"What's weird?" Chlo says walking towards us. I haven't uttered a single word to this girl since she said all those nasty things to me. 

I narrow my eyes at her, and Carson's bounce between Chlo and I.

"Hey. I just wanted to say congratulations on the new boyfriend." She holds out her hand.

"What?" I say.

"Congrats." She says, still holding out her hand.

"What the hell, Chlo?" I say.

"What?" She says. She pulls her hand back. "I'm just saying I'm proud of you for finally dating someone. You know, without r!pping him to shreds."

I just glare at her.

"Fine, nevermind. I was just trying to be nice."

I take a deep breath to calm myself down. "I can't believe you're even talking to me right now." 

She looks annoyed. "Okay. I'm sorry for what I said. You're not . . . gross. You were only on the wrong path. But now you're not!"

"What is wrong with you?" I say.

"I apologized, Vicky. Can we be friends again?"

I stare at her. 

*****

After my shower, I sit on my side of the bed with my book in my lap. You know the one. After both Helen and Jennifer are fast asleep in bed, I check the time on the nightstand. 

12:07

It's past midnight, and there's still no sign of Sam. 

I should stop dwelling on it. It's starting to seem like I want her to be there-- I don't. But even though we're on a 'pretending-the-other-doesn't-exist-basis, I don't want her to just dissappear.

There are five loud raps on the door.

I swing my legs off the bed and approach the door cautiously, wondering why Sam didn't just use her room key. 

I turn the handle and open the door slightly, and I come face to face with none other than Mckenna.

"What, are you stalking me now?" I ask disinterestedly. She rolls her eyes and folds her arms.

"Where is Sam?"

I'm about to say 'I don't know', when Mckenna exhales loudly and pushes past me into the room.

"Hey, you can't do that!"

Mckenna's in the middle of the room now, and I let the door close slowly with a sigh and join her. She just stares at the unmade bed.

"Hello? Mckenna." I say, waving my hand in front of her face. "Feel free to leave my room."

She doesn't roll her eyes at my comment, but instead looks worried and starts walking toward the door.

"Wait what's happening?" I say.

"Sam's gone, that's what." She makes a move to get past me, but fails.

"Yeah, no shit, but why are you in my room?"

"She was supposed to meet with me in my room tonight, but she never showed up."

"Why?"

Mckenna gives me a look that tells me I shouldn't be asking those types of questions.

I rephrase it. "When was the last time you saw her?"

"Today. This morning, at breakfast."

My eyes widen. "What? Was she not in your tour group?"

"I just told you she wasn't there."

"Well, are you going to look for her?"

"Yes, Victoria. That's why I came to your room. I . . . I need your help."

I raise my eyebrows. "Really. That's a first."

She frowns and looks at me. "I don't know why she likes you."

*****

Mckenna joins us a breakfast, and I make sure to tell Carson not to be hostile toward her.

"We can't trust Chlo." Mckenna says to Carson and I.

"Why?" Carson asks. He's doing a good job of not making her feel like the enemy.

 "I overheard her talking to Kim a couple times in her office back at camp."

 "And?" I say.

 "And Kim was talking about keeping 'order' in the camp, and--"

 "Order?"

 "Let me just start from the beginning." She says.

A/N:

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